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Article
Publication date: 1 May 1993

Russell A. Eisenstat

The process described in Russell Eisenstat's presentation was developed by Eisenstat and Michael Beer in partnership with Becton Dickinson, a $2.5 billion medical technology…

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Abstract

The process described in Russell Eisenstat's presentation was developed by Eisenstat and Michael Beer in partnership with Becton Dickinson, a $2.5 billion medical technology company. The presentation by James Wessel of Becton Dickinson, which follows Mr. Eisenstat's overview, outlines some of the implementation barriers encountered.

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Planning Review, vol. 21 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0094-064X

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Article
Publication date: 1 May 1992

Clay Carr

The Gaines Dog Food plant in Topeka KS is built around self‐managing work teams. It opened in 1971 and has been 20% more productive than similar, traditional plants for two…

208

Abstract

The Gaines Dog Food plant in Topeka KS is built around self‐managing work teams. It opened in 1971 and has been 20% more productive than similar, traditional plants for two decades. The Procter & Gamble Co.'s Paper Products Division implemented self‐managing teams at the same time; by 1975, it knew that the division was significantly more productive than traditionally organized plants. In the mid‐1980s, AT&T's American Transtech subsidiary cut its prices to customers by 50%, then avoided layoffs, then became even more profitable by moving to more fully self‐managing teams. And tiny Litel Communications (now LCI) used teams to cut time to process a service order from two weeks to one day.

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Journal of Business Strategy, vol. 13 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0275-6668

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Article
Publication date: 8 March 2011

Brian Leavy

This is another in a series of Strategy & Leadership “Masterclass” papers that aims at bringing senior managers up to speed on an emerging topic – in this case, leading adaptive

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Abstract

Purpose

This is another in a series of Strategy & Leadership “Masterclass” papers that aims at bringing senior managers up to speed on an emerging topic – in this case, leading adaptive change by harnessing the power of new tools such as positive deviance.

Design/methodology/approach

Noted strategic management observer Brian Leavy analyzes new tools and concepts for adaptive change offered by strategists Richard Pascale, Michael Beer and others.

Findings

The paper leads executives through the formidable challenge of uncovering positive deviant behaviors –that is, individual learning breakthroughs–and translating them into “collective learning.”

Practical implications

The positive deviance approach has shown itself to be effective in a wide variety of seemingly intractable challenges including elimination of MRSA in the Veterans Administration Hospital in Pittsburgh and the reversal of chronic sales underperformance at Merck, Mexico.

Originality/value

Senior executives seeking to manage adaptive change will welcome this thoughtful guide to newly available tools.

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Strategy & Leadership, vol. 39 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1087-8572

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Publication date: 16 January 2023

Michael Beer

This chapter presents a theory for developing an adaptive high commitment, high performance system of organizing, managing, and leading. It is a synthesis of my 50 years of action…

Abstract

This chapter presents a theory for developing an adaptive high commitment, high performance system of organizing, managing, and leading. It is a synthesis of my 50 years of action and field research presented in my books and articles. It operationalized and makes actionable the ideas of Lewin and systems theorists. Its features are three organizational outcomes that must be achieved simultaneously, features of the system that must be targeted for change, six silent barriers to change, a governance system for continuous learning, change in large complex systems, and elements of a system that needed to immunize it against ultimate destruction.

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Research in Organizational Change and Development
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80455-094-6

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Publication date: 31 July 2020

Michael Beer

The field of organization development is about change and development of organizational systems. One of the major barriers to system change is organizational silence, the fear of…

Abstract

The field of organization development is about change and development of organizational systems. One of the major barriers to system change is organizational silence, the fear of lower level to speak truth to power, and senior leaders' reluctance to seek the truth. Consequently, senior leaders whose role is to orchestrate strategic change that will develop the organization's capabilities do not know the whole truth about their system's capabilities to achieve its purpose and strategy and live to its values. Thirty years of enabling leaders to transform their organization through safe honest, collective, and internally public conversations using a structured process called the Strategic Fitness Process (SFP) has led to insights about why such conversations are powerfully transformative. After a brief description of the SFP, this chapter describes insights and supporting grounded data about why honest conversations were transformative when leaders fully embrace the practice and spirit of SFP. These insights were gained from facilitating and observing hundreds of honest conversations in progress. The findings have implications for how leaders aided by consultants can accelerate strategic change that will improve effectiveness and performance while simultaneously transforming trust and commitment.

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Book part
Publication date: 17 July 2011

Michael Beer

The field of organization development is fragmented and lacks a coherent and integrated theory and method for developing an effective organization. A 20-year action research…

Abstract

The field of organization development is fragmented and lacks a coherent and integrated theory and method for developing an effective organization. A 20-year action research program led to the development and evaluation of the Strategic Fitness Process (SFP) – a platform by which senior leaders, with the help of consultants, can have an honest, collective, and public conversation about their organization's alignment with espoused strategy and values. The research has identified a syndrome of six silent barriers to effectiveness and a dynamic theory of organizational effectiveness. Empirical evidence from the 20-year study demonstrates that SFP always enables truth to speak to power safely, and in a majority of cases enables senior teams to transform silent barriers into strengths, realign their organization's design and strategic management process with strategy and values, and in a few cases employ SFP as an ongoing learning and governance process. Implications for organization and leadership development and corporate governance are discussed.

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Research in Organizational Change and Development
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78052-022-3

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Book part
Publication date: 22 November 2018

Erik Monsen and Alan D. Boss

To innovatively address challenges faced by corporate entrepreneurship (CE) in this modern age of globalization and digitalization, this chapter takes a fresh look at questions of…

Abstract

To innovatively address challenges faced by corporate entrepreneurship (CE) in this modern age of globalization and digitalization, this chapter takes a fresh look at questions of learning and leadership from the perspective of organization development (OD), a field that has long studied questions of planned and emergent change. This alternate perspective adds to our knowledge and understanding of the role of individuals and teams in CE and presents opportunities to integrate learning and leadership. In particular, the OD literature provides us with multilevel measurement methods and tools to better analyze the employee and team level-of-analysis. As a result, these insights should enable us to better explain the interaction between CE strategic orientation and the performance of corporate venturing employees and teams, as well as the progress of organizational strategic renewal and market (re)creation efforts.

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The Challenges of Corporate Entrepreneurship in the Disruptive Age
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78754-443-7

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Article
Publication date: 10 February 2012

Leah Ritchie

The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical analysis of organizational power at a non‐profit organization, and demonstrate how a participation intervention can deconstruct…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical analysis of organizational power at a non‐profit organization, and demonstrate how a participation intervention can deconstruct entrenched norms that govern how influence is allocated among employees.

Design/methodology/approach

Using Habermas' ideal speech context as a framework for analysis, the intervention and related outcomes were examined for their potential to create constructive conflict through which both high and low status employees could interpret and negotiate how power is discursively created and maintained in the organization.

Findings

The intervention provided employees access to a discursive situation through which they could re‐interpret power‐reifying norms that limited their ability to represent their own interests. It not only provided lower‐level employees an opportunity to influence the discussion, but it also revealed an alternative way to interpret strategic planning. Through the intervention, the employees could see that the policies and decisions that they assumed to be fixed could actually be developed through a negotiated process.

Originality/value

Communication scholars have kept employee participation within the realm of theory, rarely providing practical discursive tools for shifting systems of control and helping low status workers empower themselves. In contrast, this study describes a concrete method for decentralizing organizational power and shows how using a theory‐based intervention can help both managers and their staff to critically evaluate existing organizational power structures.

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Journal of Communication Management, vol. 16 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-254X

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Book part
Publication date: 13 August 2014

Peter Reilly

This chapter seeks to optimize HR shared services performance by highlighting the potential for service fragmentation that can arise out of in the so-called Ulrich (structure or…

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter seeks to optimize HR shared services performance by highlighting the potential for service fragmentation that can arise out of in the so-called Ulrich (structure or service delivery) model.

Design/methodology/approach

The evidence used in this chapter principally comes from the author’s own work, especially research for the UK’s Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), and draws upon academic literature where possible.

Findings

This chapter argues that HR directors should guard against three sets of fragmentation risks. Firstly, HR shared services should be properly connected to the rest of HR to offer customers an integrated service to avoid the structure’s division of labor inducing incoherence. Second, to guard against this risk, HR directors should exercise care in outsourcing/offshoring beyond individual, discrete services because contractually or spatially separating services risks exacerbating this tendency to fragmentation. Outsourcing/offshoring may focus too much on cost savings and insufficiently on quality. So, third, HR should argue for the distinctiveness of its activities and fight commoditization that is also implied in the creation of cross-functional shared service centers.

Research limitations/implications

The arguments in this chapter could be better supported by academic research. In-depth case studies of management decision making and shared services operation would help support or challenge the chapter’s conclusion, as could quantitative evidence on the benefits/disbenefits of outsourcing/offshoring/cross-functional shared services centers.

Practical implications

We have highlighted a number of reported problems with HR shared services operation, besides the three principal risks noted above, but we have suggested possible solutions that could be adopted by practitioners.

Originality/value

HR managers may find this chapter helpful in designing new HR structures or in assessing the effectiveness of shared services that goes beyond the typical key performance indicator measures.

Details

Shared Services as a New Organizational Form
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78350-536-4

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Book part
Publication date: 15 September 2022

Ömür Kılınçarslan and İbrahim Efe Efeoğlu

Digitalization has become more central in organizations than ever before. Traditionally, organizations were places where employees spent most of their time. With digital…

Abstract

Digitalization has become more central in organizations than ever before. Traditionally, organizations were places where employees spent most of their time. With digital organizations, working life has become flexible in terms of time and space, and the way of doing work has changed radically. While it has become difficult for employees to keep up with technological change and transformation, various digital conflicts related to technology have emerged within the organizations. This chapter deals with digital conflicts that occur in digital organizations. Digital conflicts could affect both the efficiency of organizations and the attitudes and perceptions of employees toward the organization. However, studies on the understanding of digital conflict management in digital organizations are quite limited. In this chapter, therefore, the causes and organizational consequences of digital conflicts in terms of organizational behavior are reviewed. The study indicates that digitalization, which is expected to increase workplace effectiveness and efficiency, could lead to destructive conflicts if not managed well, reducing socialization and job satisfaction of employees. The study also has shown that a well-managed digitalization process could increase efficiency and productivity for digital organizations and could increase job satisfaction by providing flexibility to employees. The chapter ends with suggestions for digital organizations to manage digital conflict management successfully.

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Conflict Management in Digital Business
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80262-773-2

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